Glossary 15 September 2003, 11:08

Words specific to Richard Adams’ Maia:

mephitic
quoted from memory:
“Her profanity flowed over him in a smooth, mephitic stream”
connotation:
of or relating to Mephistopheles

maculate
quoted from memory:
“Maculate with dots” (from one of Adams’ effusively descriptive passages outlining part of a natural setting, e.g. a spotted lily)
connotation:
the opposite of “immaculate”

sedulous
quoted from memory:
“The sight of her, sedulous and compliant…”
connotation:
cunning

nocuous
quoted from memory:
(Epithet applied to the character Occula in her finest hour)
connotation:
the opposite of “innocuous”; assonant with the “ocu” sounds within “Occula”

Perhaps most of this vocabulary stems from Adams’ tongue-tied effort to delineate the enigmatic character of Occula.

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